Despite efforts by Wilson Security and some Salvation Army workers, around 300 people remain on the mass hunger strike on Nauru.
Reports from the detention centre indicate that 13 people have required medical attention today (Friday, 9 November). There are unconfirmed reports that the medical centre has begun using nastrogastric feeding for some of the hunger strikers. This would indicate a more serious medical situation is emerging among the hunger strikers
Until now the medical centre has been using glucose drips to rehydrate the hunger strikers.
There are also growing concerns regarding the health of the Iranian man in his 29th day of hunger strike. One of the doctors at the detention centre told him yesterday that he was at the point were he risked kidney damage and that he at greater risk of a heart attack.
Other detainees on the island say that, “He is skin and bone.”
The asylum seekers also report that although Wilson Security guards have stopped taking photographs of people eating, they are now approaching individual hunger strikers to try to convince them to end the hunger strike.
The asylum seekers also report that some Salvation Army workers are also trying to persuade people to end the hunger strike. One asylum seeker said that Wilson Security and some Salvation Army workers are trying to divide the camp, by supporting the people who are eating and trying to turn them against those who are maintaining the protest.
“They are saying that the hunger strikers are causing trouble for them,” the asylum seekers said. Another said, “No one accepts them [Wilson Security and the Salvation Army]. Everyone is staying strong.”
A camp committee with representatives of all nationalities in detention meet regularly to discuss the progress of the protest.
“The deteriorating situation on Nauru demands that the Minister of Immigration urgently intervene. Not even his own department disputes that the Iranian man has been on hunger strike for 29 days. It is time for the Minister to stop playing politics with people’s lives. The Minister will be responsible for any permanent damage to the Iranian man,” said Ian Rintoul for the Refugee Action Coalition.
“The numbers of asylum seekers who arrived since the start of Pacific Solution 2.0 would fill Nauru and Manus Island almost threes over. The 377 asylum seekers are being sacrificed for the sake of the government’s off-shore processing policy that has already failed.”
For more information contact Ian Rintoul mob 0417 275 713
